“Taxpayers have been funding massive new school facilities, teachers’ and administrators’ salaries, transportation and book costs,” said Lovettsville resident Robert Bruton, a father of five home-schooled children. “At the same time, they’re being told every student needs a laptop and every classroom needs an [electronic] board and a projector screen.”
To reduce costs, he wants the school system to offer more online classes.
“This is the future,” he added. “The babysitting model of education needs to change.”
Like most jurisdictions, the county has suffered through falling revenues from poor residential real estate values, forcing Loudoun budget planners to address a $192 million spending gap in FY 2011. With the gap filled, County Administrator Tim Hemstreet presented a copy of the budget he and his planners came up with to supervisors earlier this month.
In it, Hemstreet is proposing the elimination of dozens of positions and reduced funding for many county departments. His recommended cuts are broken up between two sets of options. The first involves a 5 percent increase in spending over the current budget, and has less severe spending reductions. The second is a zero percent bump in spending, and has more drastic reductions to county services and programs, to include the elimination of about 230 government jobs.
In addition, Hemstreet is suggesting that supervisors raise the residential real tax rate from $1.245 per every $100 of a home’s assessed value to $1.40. At the proposed rate, the tax bills would jump by 10 percent on average, a projection that brought many people out to the hearings.
“This board’s actions are fiscally irresponsible and economically unsustainable, while ignoring the will of the people,” said Ashburn’s Candace Strother, adding, “Today, when businesses are failing or laying off people, it is irresponsible for the Democratic majority to add to their burdens with these unreasonable taxes that will only aggravate the damage from this recession.” Of the board's nine members, five are Democrats.
Also from Ashburn, Cliff Keirce said supervisors should trim the amount of money set aside for the Loudoun County Public Schools, which receives about 70 percent of all county tax dollars. To save money, he suggested the system increase its class sizes and eliminate some administrative positions.
“It’s time the school system learns to live within reasonable means,” he said.
In turn, Melanie Buckley, who is the head of Heritage High School’s English department, opposes more reductions to the school system’s budget. She said she knows of several teachers and coaches who are considering looking for work in one of Loudoun’s “neighbors” in order to avoid a pay freeze. Under Schools Superintendent Ed Hatrick's budget plan, all schools employees would receive a 1 percent cost of living raise in their paychecks.
“We are going to lose those teachers,” she said. “…They realize they just can’t stay afloat.”
Also on hand were representatives from numerous county nonprofits, which depend on money from the county to maintain operations. In his budget, Hemstreet has set aside $3.7 million for nonprofits, which is slightly higher than the amount in the FY2010 budget but nearly $1 million less than FY2008 and FY2009.
“We tightly squeeze every nickel that comes our way,” said Loudoun Museum Board of Directors President Elizabeth Whiting, in defense of the museum’s request of $115,900 from the county. The county is proposing to give only $70,000. “…We’re proud of what we do and there are so many wonderful stories to be told.”
Included in Hemstreet’s proposed budget is the elimination of two positions in the Extension Office that run free financial counseling programs offered by the county.
“If you eliminate our program, crime probably won’t increase and roads won’t be improved,” said Andrea Connolly, with the Loudoun Volunteer Financial Council, which provides the counseling. “But you will be sending our youth into the world looking for their money tree, and families that continue to have financial difficulties won’t have a safe, free place to go to receive financial counseling before it is too late.”
For most, though, they attended the hearings for more personal reasons.
Take Leesburg’s Michelle Copeland. While addressing supervisors, she held up a large color photo of her son, Austin, urging them not to take money away from the school system. Austin will enter the school system later this year as a kindergartener.
“I’m happy to pay whatever it takes to make sure next year our son has a quality kindergarten teacher in a reasonable class size,” she said, before taking a verbal swipe at an earlier speaker. “He just can’t be in an online class. He needs a live teacher.”
Over much of March, members of the Board of Supervisors will discuss the budget during numerous worksessions. They will adopt a final version of the budget and a tax rate likely in early April.
See www.loudoun.gov/budget to learn more.
Anytime the Democrats are in the majority, expect a major push for higher taxes.